Number of Truly Intelligent APAC Enterprises Jumps 10 Times from 2017: Zebra Technologies

Companies are taking a more proactive, thorough approach when it comes to employing security standards within their IoT solutions, says Zebra Technologies

Zebra Technologies Corporation, an innovator at the edge of the enterprise with solutions and partners that enable businesses to gain a performance edge, announced the results of its second annual “Intelligent Enterprise Index” and, introduced Zebra Savanna – the Data Intelligence Platform, in India. The Index is a survey that measures where companies are on the journey to becoming an “intelligent enterprise”. An intelligent enterprise is the one that connects the physical and digital worlds to drive innovation through real-time guidance, data-powered environments and collaborative mobile workflows.

By scoring more than 75 points on the overall Index, the number of companies globally defined as an “intelligent enterprise” doubled to 10 percent in 2018. In Asia-Pacific, there was a spike in the number of companies that were rated as truly “intelligent” – moving up 20 percent to 22 percent this year. The average Asia-Pacific score increased from 49 points in 2017 to 63 points in 2018, underscoring the rapid adoption of Internet of Things (IoT) solutions in the region.

The Index measures to what extent companies today are meeting the criteria that define today’s Intelligent Enterprise. Overall, the Index reveals year-over-year growth of Internet of Things (IoT) deployment and investment, highlighting new momentum as enterprises expect less resistance to adoption and increasingly acknowledge IoT solutions as a core component for driving future growth across their organizations.

“As new technologies continue to transform the front line of business, real-time data-driven signals at the edge of operations are empowering front-line workers with the right information to optimize actions and outcomes,” said Sanjay Nare, Pre-Sales Head – India and Sub-Continent, Zebra Technologies. “Based on our second annual Index, it’s clear that more companies acknowledge the value of leveraging IoT strategies, and they will continue to propel adoption and investment in the future.”

Key APAC Index Findings (including India)

IoT investment is up, and resistance to adoption is down. The Index reveals that the average annual spend on IoT is up by 4 percent year-over-year globally, while it was a 12 percent increase in Asia-Pacific, to US$4.8 million. 91 percent expect that number to increase over the next 1-2 years. 48 percent expect their IoT investment to increase by 11-20 percent. 69 percent have an IoT vision and are currently executing their IoT plans. 44 percent currently have company-wide deployments and 25 percent of remaining companies plan to deploy IoT company-wide in the future.

Enterprises are driving a performance edge with real-time guidance. 52 percent of respondents globally say information from their IoT solutions is shared with employees in real or near-real time. Asia-Pacific companies are more advanced in this area, with 58 percent of companies sharing data with employees in such frequency. In addition, two-thirds of those surveyed globally have established a plan on how to organize and analyze their data. This is up 10 percent from last year. Real-time analytics (66 percent) and security (63 percent) were reported as the most prevalent elements of a company’s data management plan.

Empowering the front-line. Notably, organizations are empowering their front-line with actionable data as 32 percent of the respondents say they provide insights to the front-line workers. This reflects the need for innovations, technologies and real-time data at the edge of the enterprise. In Asia-Pacific, this stands at 41 percent, up 7 percentage points from last year’s index.

Security is a top priority across the enterprise. Companies are taking a more proactive, thorough approach when it comes to employing security standards within their IoT solutions. The Index revealed an 18 percentage point increase in the number of companies that are constantly – versus routinely – monitoring their IoT security to ensure privacy and integrity. In Asia-Pacific, the increase was 20 percentage points from a year ago.

Companies are demonstrating a greater reliance on a solution ecosystem. 40 percent of the companies surveyed globally report using a strategic partner to manage their entire IoT solution, up from 21 percent from 2017. This is higher in Asia-Pacific at 54 percent. This dependence on third-party expertise and management of IoT processes, similar to Zebra’s Savanna platform.

Corresponding to the growth of IoT adoption and spending in APAC, Zebra is introducing Savanna – its breakthrough data intelligence platform in India. Savanna aggregates and analyzes raw edge data from Zebra’s products and intelligence infrastructure, as well as select 3rd party devices to deliver real time insights. Using data collection, analytics, artificial intelligence and machine learning, Savanna powers next-gen applications and solutions to create data powered environments and guide real time actions. Savanna integrates in to current infrastucture, leveraging existing hardware, software systems of record and data ecosystems to create a holistic enterprise perspective, making businesses smarter and more profitable.

Survey Background and Methodology

The online survey was fielded from August 6 – September 14, 2018 across a wide range of segments, including healthcare, manufacturing, retail and transportation and logistics.

Eleven metrics were used to understand where companies are on the path to becoming an Intelligent Enterprise, including: IoT Vision, Business Engagement, Technology Solution Partner, Adoption Plan, Change Management Plan, Point of use Application, Security and Standards, Lifetime Plan, Architecture/Infrastructure, Data Plan and Intelligent Analysis.

The criteria were identified by executives, industry experts and policymakers across different industries at the 2016 Strategic Innovation Symposium: The Intelligent Enterprise, hosted by Zebra in collaboration with the Technology and Entrepreneurship Center at Harvard (TECH).

The framework of an Intelligent Enterprise is based on technology solutions that integrate cloud computing, mobility, and the Internet of Things (IoT) to automatically “sense” information from enterprise assets. Operational data from these assets, including status, location, utilization, or preferences, is then “analyzed” to provide actionable insights, which can then be mobilized to the right person at the right time, so they can be “acted” upon to drive better, more-timely decisions by users anywhere, at any time.